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Posts Tagged ‘bosnia’

Hillary Tells Fox She’s Still In It To Win It

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Hillary Clinton says she’s listening to the will of the people who want her to stay in this race despite a shaky path to the nomination — and is willing to take her fight for delegates all the way to the Democratic National Convention.

In an exclusive interview with Fox SuperAnchor Greta Van Susteren, Senator Clinton argued that the race is far from finished. “People don’t want this to be over,” she said. “That is what people are telling me.”

“Nobody should be writing obituaries on this race, because it is a long way from being over,” she said. “What I’ve seen in my last 14 months on the campaign trail is that every time people count me out — you know, pundits say it’s over, it should be over — the voters bring me back… because they believe that I will actually get up every day in that White House and work my heart out for all of our people.”

Those pundits who argue that the Democratic race is all but done cite Obama’s leads in overall delegates, pledged delegates, and the popular vote - with precious few opportunities for Clinton to make up ground now that Michigan and Florida are unlikely to hold revotes. Hillary blamed her rival Barack Obama for disenfranchising voters in those two states, who went for her in primaries that have since been discounted.

“The Democratic National Committee and I and my campaign, said to the leadership of Michigan, we’re willing to have a revote. I don’t know how that would have turned out,” she said. “Senator Obama said no. He basically turned his back. Here’s somebody who runs a campaign about empowerment, and all of that. Well, hello, what about giving the people of Michigan a chance to have their voices and votes heard?”

Asked about her options for getting those votes counted, the New York Senator raised the specter of a convention battle — a scenario few Democrats can be excited about. “You can always go to the convention. That’s what credential fights are for,” she said. “Lets have the Democratic party go on record against seating the Michigan and Florida delegations three months before the general election? I don’t think that will happen. I think they will be seated. So that’s where we’re headed if we don’t get this worked out.”

(more…)

Clinton: “I Made a Mistake” on Bosnia Retelling

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Sen Clinton admitted to misspeaking when she said she’d been “under sniper fire” during a landing at a military base in Bosnia in 1996 — but denied that her comments represented a pattern of embellishment.

“I just disagree with that,” she said. “I made a mistake. I had a different memory, and my staff and others have all kind of come together trying to sort [it] out.”

Clinton has been under more metaphorical fire for her claim last week that snipers had forced her to run to her car, head down, instead of holding a planned welcoming ceremony at the Tuzla base — when video from the event clearly shows her shaking hands with well wishers and greeting an 8 year old girl on the tarmac.

While the campaign says she merely misspoke at an event in Washington last week, the Obama campaign sent out three separate events in which Sen Clinton mentioned running from the plane because of sniper threats — arguing that Clinton was misleading, not misspeaking.

Clinton now says that while she may have been fuzzy on the details, there were definite security concerns. “We were very much told by the Secret Service and the military that we were going into a war zone, and that we had to be conscious of that,” she said. “We certainly did take precautions. There is no doubt about that and I remember that very clearly. But I did make a mistake in talking about it the last time and recently.”

“That happens, it proves I’m human,” she said. “Which, you know, for some people is a revelation.” She later said she was joking when she told a Pittsburgh radio station that it was her first misstatement in 12 years, telling the press corps to “lighten up. I say millions of words every week, and theres’ a lot more room for error when you’re talking as much as I’m talking .”

Trying to move past the incident, Clinton argued that the discussion should be about the foreign policy credentials of the two Democratic rivals. “Look, this is really about what policy experience we have and who’s ready to be commander in chief, and I’m happy to put my experience up against Senator Obama’s any day.”

HRC: No Tea In Bosnia

Saturday, December 29th, 2007

Hillary held a huge indoor rally in Dubuque today, and the vocal crowd of 700+ seems to have energized her enough to do something she refused to do with reporters this morning — hit back at Barack Obama’s crack that foreign policy experience is more than which world leaders you “had tea” with.

Recounting her visit to Bosnia shortly after the peace accords, Senator Clinton described a “corkscrew landing” at an airfield in the area, followed by a sprint out the door due to the threat of sniper fire.

“I don’t remember anybody offering me tea on the tarmac when that was happening,” she said with a grin.

She also described a visit to Macedonia in 1999 to negotiate an agreement on refugees from neighboring Kosovo — a new element in her stump speech that may be designed to push back against stories like this one claiming her role in foreign policy in the Clinton White House was more limited than she seems to suggest on the trail.

UPDATE: Hillary also describes the incident in very similar language on pages 322-323 of her autobiography “Living History” — but in this retelling, she left out the fact that this March, 1996 trip also included her daughter Chelsea, musician Sheryl Crow, and 1990’s comedian Sinbad.

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